We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
On December 15, Clinton is having a big party in Manhattan at the Plaza Hotel, once owned by Trump, for her campaign donors, as a sort of thank-you and keep-in-touch farewell. It is expected to cost more than $100,000 and be paid for with excess campaign funds. Clintonworld insiders will be interested to see if Abedin shows up or whether she chooses to skip the celebration to stay at home to nurse her wounds.
I think that America’s biggest problem right now is that anyone that disagrees with a liberal on race is called a racist; anyone that disagrees with a liberal on gender is called a sexist; anyone that disagrees with the LGBT mafia is called a hater and a homophobe; anyone that disagrees with a liberal on immigration is called a xenophobe. There is no way we can bring America together while you liberals are running around calling people names and getting away with it. Meanwhile president-elect Trump and his whole team are dedicated to one thing, and one thing only. We want to bring Americans together and Make America Great Again. And we say to you naysayers and name-callers and speech curators that you can take your vile pejoratives and put them where the sun don’t shine.”
We cannot pinpoint the moment when the American people came to their senses and recognized that political correctness was ruining the country. At one time it had all seemed like an innocent game. Let’s pretend that men and women are the same, that the difference between the sexes was a patriarchal plot, a social construct.
It became less innocent when the thought police started tyrannizing everyone’s mind, forcing them to use made-up pronouns and never to say the least disparaging thing about any member of the distaff sex. Since most of us prefer not to say disparaging things about anyone, it seemed acceptable.
But then, political correctness might have reached a tipping point when the courts decided that a he who thought he was a she had to be allowed into the girls’ locker room in high school. Or was it the moment when the politically correct ideologically driven Obama Defense Department decided to ignore all the relevant science and to integrate women into military combat infantry units?
When professors or administrators act as if Trump and his supporters are uniquely evil, as opposed to simply one political coalition, they are engaging in “othering.” The message is that Trump — and, more significantly, his supporters on campus — aren’t really members of the community in good standing. They’re a dangerous “other” who must be closely watched, carefully scrutinized, thoroughly stigmatized, and maybe shunned.
Normally, the NYT is super-enthused to talk to enemies, even wanting normalized relations, such as with Cuba and Iran. But, that’s when a Democrat is in office.
I guess it depends on how strictly one wishes to define "disease." I would not be willing to term being fat or obese a disease but as a normal variant as a result of life style, physical tendencies, psychological tendencies, culture, subculture, and the like. Western cultures now value youthful slimness and stylish fitness, but a century ago being fat was considered prosperous, important, "weighty."
For a while there, it seemed as if obesity were almost a requirement of a US President. I think Trump is the fattest President we will have had in a long time. Who was the last fat President of the US, not counting Bill Clinton whose weight varied a good deal and who now looks underfed if not ill?
I think it's a stretch to term a physical condition a "disease." We do not term physical weakness "a disease," or being "uinderweight" unless you have anorexia. Many or maybe even most fat people seem comfortable with it, and accept the trade-off of tasty carbs vs. being light on their feet.
Anyway, government money is flowing into research so now being fat is suddenly a disease needing medical treatment. In the US, the expanding "disease" label is often about money. Example: One Weight-Loss Approach Fits All? No, Not Even Close.
When human variations occur on a bell curve, you can get away with drawing the vertical line of "abnormal" wherever you want. That's where America's "obesity epidemic" came from.
People talk about the Big 5 or Big 6 or Big 7 strength exercises because they are the most time-efficient. They are time-efficient because, as a package, they can stress and gently damage pretty much all of the useful skeletal muscles. Controlled muscle damage is the goal. These are large compound movements which should leave you breathless, fully-fatigued, and aching if not hurting a bit.
If you can do them, you don't really need to do any other strength exercises. All you do is increase the reps up to near ten, and/or the weight. For middle-age and older, we think 4-5 sets of 10 or fewer reps while steadily increasing the max weight, and each exercise once-weekly is enough unless you are a competitive athlete. I mostly do 5 sets with the first being a warm-up weight and the final being my max of 6-8 reps if I can do it. (Over ten reps is always a bad idea unless for small muscles (eg calf, forearm, isolated triceps, leg machines.)
I consider the Big Seven strength exercises for guys and gals of any age to be the following:
1. Squats (with body weight, goblet, ideally barbell, or whatever you are able to do. I now do back barbell squats to sitting low. Sheesh, what a bitch that is.) 2. Pull-ups (for guys mainly, but assisted works for gals or for guys who can't do them. Or gals can substitute pull-downs on the machine - much better than nothing) 3. Deadlift (+/- snatch, etc) 4. Bench press 5. Military Press 6. Barbell or Dumbell Rows - hating them means you need them 7. Dips
Not one of these requires a gym machine. Gym machines can be of use to get yourself to a level where you can perform the Big 5 or 6 or 7. Gym machines are also excellent for warm-ups (eg pull-downs, leg extensions, leg press, press downs, etc). That's mainly what I use them for, but most active people have developed some joint problems over time so the machines can be less-good substitutes for the Big Ones as needed. (I have one wrecked shoulder, but lots of people in my gym have a wrecked knee or two or some sort of back injury, fake knees or hips - or something. A bunch of cripples!).
These are just strength exercises, of course, for muscle-preservation and improvement as the clock ticks but they stress the heck out of your heart too, which is supposed to be good. Some cardio and some calisthenics need to be part of a balanced program with also, ideally, a sport or two for fun, social fun, and as the reward.
Feeling over the hill is a mental problem. We had a guy here who was still lifting 3 days before he croaked at 95. Dead, but dead in pretty good shape for his age. Can't ask for more than that.
Federalism, as enshrined in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments, is an essential bulwark against despotism. In America, we don’t usually talk about “collective rights” and for good reason. But it’s important to understand that we have them. Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, gays, or whites (sorry alt-right), etc. don’t have collective rights — but communities do.
Specifically, the states. Vermonters have the right to live the way they want to live, so long as they don’t violate the constitutional rights of the Americans who live there. So, no slavery or Jim Crow (again, sorry alt-right). But that still leaves an enormous amount of wiggle room for Vermont to do things the people running the federal government at any given time may or may not like. And that’s good, because states, and the communities that make them up, have a better idea of how they want to live — and what will work for them — than people in Washington do. This is why federalism, within constitutional restraints, is the greatest system ever conceived of for maximizing human happiness.
Most readers can probably surmise that I think liberals have good reason to worry that Donald Trump’s fidelity to the Constitution is at best rhetorical. And even here the commitment is flimsy. Trump prefers to think in Nietzschean terms — Strength! Winning! — than in Lockean terms. But it’s worth bearing in mind that if the Constitution is an afterthought for Trump, it is a dangerous relic for most Democratic politicians.
The specter of identity politics is haunting the left. It shows up at teary-eyed election parties in Berkeley, debates over craft beers in Williamsburg and the editorial pages of the big opinion shaper papers.
...
Democrats have to choose between identity politics and the working class. Abandoning identity politics would be a painful process while abandoning the working class has proven to be painless and disastrous. But identity politics without mass migration and social transformation is unworkable. Immigration determines the future of the Democrats. This election is forcing Democrats to make a choice.
Via Insty, "... many religious Christians of a traditionalist bent believed that liberals not only reduce their deeply held beliefs to bigotry, but want to run them out of their jobs, close down their stores and undermine their institutions."
With Obama in office all of the news was good… or at least spun to look as positive as possible. For the next four years at least you can expect to see headlines like the one linked above. Everything is terrible and there is nothing good upon the land as long as Trump is in charge.
There are no set strength or endurance goals that fit everybody. Reasonable strength goals for general fitness - not for great power - vary by body type, neuro-muscular constitution, age, sex, talent, etc.
I know a gal, much younger than me, who can deadlift 300 comfortably. She is a school teacher.
My trainer and I, after 18 months, have decided that realistic goals for me are to bench my body weight (which is 165 lbs now - up ten lbs of muscle and sinew in the past 8 months as my boss predicted and required, while my waist is down to where it was 15 years ago - from 37" to 35"), barbell squat my body weight a few times, deadlift 200 a few times, and do maybe 5 pull-ups. Have you done a pull-up lately? I remember when I could do ten or more. Never again, for certain. I can not do military press, alas, due to shoulder damage.
That is realistic, not ambitious and I am certain many readers are much stronger. After reaching those strength goals, it will be mostly about maintaining, preventing decay and deterioration. Sure, I'd like to be stronger, but I wouldn't mind being taller, more handsome, and smarter too. Regarding endurancegoals - that's a different topic.
So yes, those are relatively modest goals for many but I have an ectomorphic runner's build, some grey hair, and I am about fitness and conditioning anyway, not body-building.
How are our friends doing with their efforts? Do you have goals? Goals are necessary in every endeavor, I feel.
So what does a Master Persuader do when he needs to create a good first impression to last for years? He looks around for any opportunity that is visible, memorable, newsworthy, true to his brand, and easy to change.
Once again, we are seeing what is a core failing of technocracy. Public policy is about trade-offs. In a liberal democracy, the people, through their representatives, wrangle over these trade-offs and arrive at a compromise that satisfies most people well enough to keep the peace. Logic is not what drives these deliberations. Tradition, culture and vested interests play the leading roles. Smart people know how to create a better health system, for example, but getting everyone to go along with it is impossible.
Without heavy regular use, muscle fibers die (never to be recovered) or atrophy (can be recovered with effort). Such is the fate of the middle-aged body. Young people can add new muscle fibers with exertion, old people can not.
In later years, it is easier to improve strength and endurance than bigger muscles. See discussion.
3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,
3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Re today's image: Can I please have both?
Image via Moonbattery 
Global warming 
Image via 
Image from a Mitchell piece on 
There are no set strength or endurance goals that fit everybody. Reasonable strength goals for general fitness - not for great power - vary by body type, neuro-muscular constitution, age, sex, talent, etc.
The cheapest deal is a subscription to Maggie's Farm's website - it's free with instant world-wide delivery, faster than Santa or Amazon Prime.
